25 Amazing Facts About Calvin and Hobbes

Young, hyper-active Calvin was named after theologian John Calvin, while his tiger companion, Hobbes, was named after philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

According to an interview, Watterson claimed a movie of “Calvin and Hobbes” would change the way he intended the comic to be viewed.

He described himself as a well behaved child unlike his creation, mischievous Calvin.

He wanted to do different things other than write comics, like painting, studying music, and other hobbies. Mainly, he stopped because he didn’t want the comic to be repetitive.

Although named after Thomas Hobbes, the character’s mannerisms are based on Bill Watterson’s cat, Sprite.

An original comic of “Calvin and Hobbes” by Bill Watterson holds the record for an original comic at an auction.

It’s true. Apparently, Watterson allowed the comic to be used to help kids with learning disabilities.

He said the character of Susie Derkins was named after his wife’s beagle, Derkins.

Calvin’s teacher Miss Wormwood was taken from a character of a C.S. Lewis novel called “The Screwtape Letters.” The character called “Wormwood” was the devil’s apprentice.

“Calvin and Hobbes” was first published on November 18th, 1985. However, the publications told Bill Watterson to not put all his eggs in one basket by quitting his day job. Of course, we all know the comic became a huge crowd pleaser.

Technically, if the strip was still being published, the characters would be celebrating 34 years of friendship. Although, they definitely wouldn’t look like it.

“Bacon and Hobbes” is the story of Calvin and Susie’s daughter Bacon and her adventures with Hobbes. The comic is not approved or written by Bill Watterson.

You probably have seen Calvin peeing on the back of cars. Although most of it is in good humor, in the late ’90s, the state of South Carolina didn’t think so, and ticketed drivers who had it.

He won again in 1988 and was nominated in 1992. He was the youngest person to win Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonist Society.

Apparently, the king of horror was a big fan of the comic. Thankfully, he never tried to make a Calvin and Hobbes movie. Can you imagine?

There doesn’t appear to be a reason for this, but if you go back and read the comics, you’ll see it very rarely happens. Maybe once or twice.

Borgman was a few years older than Watterson, but they both had the same drawing teacher.

Although there have been many carbon copies made, Bill Watterson refused to sell the rights to have official Calvin and Hobbes toys to be made and sold.

While Watterson was unemployed, he came up with a comic about a loudmouth spaceman and his not so bright assistant. This duo would become the prototype for Calvin and Hobbes.

Obviously, the comic strip “Peanuts.” He might have enjoyed the snack, too. Watterson was a fan of Schultz’s expressive drawings.

Many of the original “Calvin and Hobbes” artwork is kept at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University. Jenny Robb, a curator at the museum and cartoon expert, was able to get a short interview with Watterson; he was known to dislike doing interviews.

The comic has been printed in over 2,000 newspapers and over 45 million “Calvin and Hobbes” books have been sold.

In 2014, Bill Watterson was given the Angoulême Grand Prix, which is the highest honor a cartoonist can receive. He was the second American to win this award.

In 2010, a bunch of comics from “Calvin and Hobbes” to “Garfield” appeared on a collection of stamps called Sunday Funnies.

If you read the comics, then you’ll remember Calvin was not that great at sports and invented the game “Calvinball,” where the players make up rules as they go along.